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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

When the airline from Calais to Bangor was first opened, this old article claimed wolves were a problem.

From: http://www.calaisalumni.org/

" When the "Airline Stage Company" finally opened a track from Bangor to Calais in the mid 1800's they were awarded the contract for mail delivery to Calais, a contract long held by the Shore Line stage company which came up the coast. This was a serious financial blow to the Shore Line because most passengers took the mail stage and switched to the Airline Route which was also 6 hours shorter. The Shore Line folks took the offensive with the attached ad which was printed in newspapers and posted in public places. They spread false stories of the "Airline" coach being regularily preyed upon by vicious packs of wolves. It didn't work as the Airline stage ran for many years over our beloved Airline even though the road became known as the "Wolf Route". - Al Churchill"

A widespread myth holds that daddy longlegs, also known as granddaddy longlegs or harvestmen, are the most venomous spiders in the world. We're only safe from their bite, we are told, because their fangs are too small and weak to break through human skin. It turns out that the notion is false on both counts. But a little clarification is needed.

According to entomologists at the University of California, Riverside, the term "daddy longlegs" is commonly used to refer to two distinct types of creatures: opilionids arachnids with pill-shape bodies and eight long legs that are actually not spiders, and pholcids, which have long legs and small bodies, and thus resemble opilionids, but which are true spiders.

Opilionids true daddy longlegs live in moist, dark places and eat mostlydecomposing vegetable and animal matter. "They do not have venom glands, fangs or any other mechanism for chemically subduing their food," the UC entomologists write on their website. "Therefore, they do not have poison and, by the powers of logic, cannot be poisonous from venom. Some have defensive secretions that might be poisonous to small animals if ingested. So, for these daddy longlegs, the tale is clearly false."

Pholcids, or daddy long-legs spiders, are venomous predators, and although they never naturally bite people, their fangs are similar in structure to those of brown recluse spiders, and therefore can theoretically penetrate skin. For these reasons, "This is most probably the animal to which people refer when they tell the tale," the entomologists assert.

But is pholcids' venom extremely poisonous? Surprisingly, because they almost never bite, scientists have never bothered to conduct research to determine their venom's toxicity to humans . In 2004, the Discovery Channel show "Mythbusters" stepped in to fill this knowledge void. The team set out to coax a daddy longlegs spider into biting the arm of the show's co-host, Adam Savage.

Their official conclusion? Myth busted. The spider was able to penetrate Savage's skin, and he reported nothing more than a very mild burning sensation from the venom that lasted just a few seconds.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Passamaquoddy Bay is known to have the highest biodiversity along the Northeast Atlantic coast. Does it need protection from continued attempts to turn it into an industrial port?

Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are created to protect special areas in our oceans around the world. The Passamaquoddy Bay Area or Quoddy Region is located at the northern reaches of the Gulf of Maine and is shared by the USA and Canada and is it one of those places that needs protection. It is time to work together to protect this special place for future generations.

For decades, large polluting industries have been trying to turn Quoddy into a huge industrial port. So far their efforts have been largely unsuccessful. But these efforts continue and the industrial growth that has occurred has had clear and measurable environmental and economic impacts and the degradation continues.

In recent times, dozens of individuals and groups have attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to have the Quoddy Area protected in some way. Unfortunately, these efforts to protect the area have encountered serious local opposition based on a fear that "traditional" fishing will be impacted. Yet this is happening already because there is no protection at all and landings have continued to drop with huge losses of revenue. Pollution from industry, coastal sewage and aquaculture coupled with large-scale corporate fishing continues unabated and the impacts will continue unless the area has protection of some sort.

Fortunately, the new Government of Canada recently announced interest in exploring Quoddy as a Marine Protected Area (MPA). Join the movement and help us put in place measures that will protect the Quoddy Region for future generations while ensuring protection for existing traditional businesses and lifestyles.